Usually - the "odd"names in the language of the "new" country (or sometimes words not in the vocabulary of the parent picking out the name) are selected because they sound pretty - or they are being pronounced by the rules of the old language and sound pretty THAT way.

But Latin & Greek words overheard in the hospital are usually a very bad idea to pick as a name..............as medical terms that sound pretty can be very far from pretty when you learn what the word refers to.

And I remember writing in high school about a name I've since looked up - at least the poor character never made it out of my notebooks.................

Glioma/glioblastoma/oligodendrogliom. I quite like the way it sounds in Norwegian, but knowing what it is does take the pretty out of it. It's not the poor glial cells fault that they had to lend their name to a horrible illness! Glial cells are awesome! Also, I just really like pronouncing the glio-part.

Duodenum sounds awfully pretty to me, and a healthy one is a great thing to own!

Logged

Just because someone is offended that does not mean they are in the right.

I just like typing esophagogastroduodenoscopy. And choledocholithiasis (stones in the biliary tree). And endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. I've undergone an esophagogastroduodenoscopy (it's the opposite of a colonoscopy) and I underwent endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography because I had choledocholithiasis.

Somewhere out there someone named their daughter that, I just know it.

I've posted this before but when I was much younger and first heard the word (but did not know the meaning) I thought it was SO GORGEOUS for a name for a girl. Like a mix of Chloe and Lydia. I still do!

When my coworker Shirley was pregnant we made a list of joke names for her to name her baby (she didn't find out the gender) I was convinced it was a girl (it was) and told her I would give her 5000 dollars if she named her kid Tularemia. Tula for short. We're microbiologists so there were lots of suggestions for Salmonella, Escherichia, Listeria, etc. I still think Tularemia is cute. Maybe if we get a pet rabbit.